Iran’s petrochemical exports exceed $7b in 7 months

Iran exported about 9.9 million tons of petrochemicals, worth over $7 billion, in the past seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (from March 20 to October 21, 2012), IRIB quoted National Petrochemical Company Managing Director Abdolhossein Bayat as saying on Tuesday.
As much as $80 billion in investment opportunities have been identified in both the upstream and downstream sectors of the Iranian petrochemical industry, which is taking great steps toward development, Bayat said, adding that the NPC pays special attention to the attraction of investments in order to achieve this goal.

In May, Bayat said that nine petrochemical projects will be implemented in the current Iranian calendar year, which will boost the country’s output by 8 million tons.

Iran has implemented 38 plans to boost its petrochemical output over the past three years.

China and countries in Western Europe are the main recipients of Iran’s petrochemical exports, followed by countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and Latin America, he noted.

Iran is seeking new markets for its petrochemical products. Toward this end, the NPC has been identifying new export targets for the past two years, and boosting exports of polymer products is on the agenda.

On April 18, Bayat said that Iran exported $14 billion worth of petrochemical products to 60 countries during the previous Iranian calendar year (March 2011-March 2012).

He added that $10.5 billion of oil revenues will be allocated for the development of the national petrochemical industry.